ISSUE NO. 26
JANUARY 26, 2001
OUR 79th YEAR
http://RotaryClubofSantaMonica.org
“Many American kids can barely read,” Rotary
International told John McIntire in 1995 when he became our club
president. “Our clubs should invent ways to get kids enthused about books.
Give it priority.” John pondered. Illiteracy wasn’t a noted problem in
1995.
“Can you come up with a major literacy project?”
he asked Shirley Dowling, one of the newer members, who was to be
director of vocational services for the year. Esther Johnson, the
club’s longtime executive director, told her, “Rotarians would like
something that keeps them in hands-on teamwork with other community groups.”
Shirley named Neil Schmidt and Karen Baker
(both educators) to head a literacy committee. The group found that, in four
Santa Monica schools, younger pupils seldom tried to read outside class –
one reason being that school libraries and classrooms contained almost no
books for their ages.
“Rotarians can go and read aloud to those kids,”
the committee proposed. “At the same time we should give their classrooms a
good stock of worthwhile picture books for younger ages.” They figured this
would require buying a set of five books for each of the 70 classrooms,
delivering them, and reading one to the children.
The project called “Rotary Reads to Kids” at
Karen’s suggestion, caught fire. The club appropriated three thousand
dollars. More than a third of our members (the maximum needed) signed up as
readers, and went as promised. Each year since, we’ve kept buying and
reading.
The idea drew wide attention. Fourteen clubs in our
district started “Rotary Reads to Kids” in schools. Three years ago
Shirley was made Literacy chair for District 5280. Last year Los Angeles 5
Rotary Club teamed with the Los Angeles Times in a drive called
“Reading by 9” that now marshals 16 major organizations all over Southern
California. It is putting tens of thousands of books into schools. (Nationwide
there are 17 classroom books per student, but the number is only 5 in
California.)
Our speaker Friday is a dynamic individual often
called Lani – Leilani Lattin Duke. She is nationally known as a
civic-service executive. Beginning as federal aid coordinator for Senator
Jacob Javits of New York, she moved up to head three national art groups, then
served 17 years as founding director of the Getty Education Institute for the
Arts. She helped start the Times project. She’ll tell us what these
reading programs mean to young children.
Watch for sign-up sheets for Rotary Reads to Kids in the next few weeks.
It
is indeed rare for an entire club of approximately 160 Rotarians to be fined $10
per person for a mistake by its president. It is alleged that President John
wore Mark Olson’s badge during the January 5th meeting
without anyone noticing. When John proclaimed this at the January 12th
meeting, our members’ mental responses were of two kinds.
Some
thought, “The badges are to help us remember the names of any members we
don’t know well. That’s the only reason we ever glance at one. Does John
expect us to peer at every badge to make sure it’s pinned to the right
person?” Others thought or said, “Actually John, we noticed it but were too
embarrassed for you to mention it. A simple task like wearing his own badge is
elementary for a Rotary president.” Either way, to avoid furthering this
matter, we all feel happy to pay for your goof. An addition of $1,600 to our
treasury is real progress, John.
Judy
Neveau had a
fine vacation in Spain and London. Consequently she was fined $150. No doubt she
felt the trip was worth the fine. We’re happy for your pleasurable experience,
Judy.
--
Lionel Ruhman
In
1990 the Italian government shut down the Tower of Pisa and launched a
controversial rescue campaign.
--
page 12
Green
tea contains powerful antioxidants that can help control cholesterol levels.
--
page 13
At
Tavistock we wanted to walk the moor. Letterboxing was a way of doing that, and
it added a treasure hunt aspect.
--
page 16
Researchers
view native tribes as “living laboratories” – but what happens when
science clashes with ancient beliefs?
--
page 29
…Our
speaker will be Max Carey – a motivational speaker guaranteed to knock your
socks off!
“Local
boy makes good,” could be a half-good title for the story of the life of
Harold H. Quigley, our club’s next president. Hal was a schoolboy in Torrance.
He has headed his own accounting firm in Santa Monica since 1977. On the other
hand, much of his time has been spent elsewhere. He earned his degree at Penn
State University. Later he traveled Europe and Asia for four years as a bank
consultant. Even now, he and his wife Kai-Li take one or two carefully planned
pleasure trips each year.
As
might be guessed from his benign low-key manner, Hal is half-Oriental. His
mother’s parents came from Okinawa. But his father and grandfather were road
builders in Pennsylvania. He worked during college, toiling as a waiter,
cashier, short-order cook, and parking-lot jockey. Meanwhile in classrooms he
seemed to understand numbers in any language, so the international accounting
firm of Ernst and Young recruited him as an “auditor” when he graduated in
1970.
His
work there evidently impressed outsiders, because in 1974 First Interstate Bank
offered what he considered a dream job, visiting its offices in foreign
countries to audit and advise them. “Everybody realized I came to help,” he
recalls. “I still have friends I made at FIB.”
He
loved the travel and the work. But he was smitten with a girl he met during an
audit, and when they married they agreed that heavy travel wouldn’t promote
connubial bliss. So he left FIB and opened his own firm with three associates.
Corporate-minded
people wondered if this was prudent. But Hal was well acquainted among bankers
and lawyers, and he hoped many would refer their clients to him for tax advice,
which was to be his specialty.
He
opened with a flourish, inviting assorted business friends to an “open
house”. The party cost about $1,000 and brought $5,000 worth of assignments.
So he continued arranging open houses, with similarly gratifying results, at
bimonthly intervals for a year.
His
clientele is geographically scattered, but his business trips are no longer than
need be. Each year he and Kai-Li travel for fun, preceding each trip with
intensive reading about wherever they are going.
Hal has always found time to be useful to Santa Monica civic groups. He is board chairman of the Santa Monica Red Cross, has served the Family YMCA in various capacities, and has been a board member and vice president of our club as well as reviewing our books. But for a year starting next July, when he takes on the weekly chores of our presidency, it’s a good bet that he won’t find much spare time for pleasure trips or other civic services.